Guard for electric-railway rail-bonds.



J. J. SAPPER & .J. G. BRUEGGBMANN.

GUARD FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAY RAIL BONDS.

APPLICATION FILED we. 26, 1907.

Patented Mar. 23, 1909.

UNITED sTATEs PflTENT oFFroE.

JACOB J. SAPPER AND JOSEPH G. BRUEGGEMANN, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented March '23, 19Gb.

Application filed August 1907. Serial No. 390,263.

exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

Our. invention relates to a guard for an electric railwayrail bond, and consists of certain novel features of construction and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter more" fully. set forth, pointed out in the claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1. is a perspective view of two railway rails secured together, with parts broken away, having our invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the same; Fig. 3 is an end view, showing the in- 'terior structure of the endof the guard'in dotted lines; Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken onthe line A-B of Fig. 2.

The object of our invention is to construct a guard or shield to protect the copper bonding wire which is used for bonding the joints of electric railwaytrackrails, to prevent the same from being torn away by accident, or by unauthorized persons.

Referring by numerals to the accompanying drawings :1 and 2 indicate sections of track rails, said rails being connected by a fish plate 3, of any preferred construct1on..

The fish late 3 is secured to the rails by means of olts 5, and nuts 6.

In the ordinary construction of securin the fish plate to the rails, the same is secured by means of six bolts. In applying our guard to the rail, we utilize two of these bolts and reverse the same; that is, the nuts of the two bolts which hold the guard to the rails are located on the inside of the rail;

' 7 designates the guard, which may be cast or pressed, as desired. Said guard comprises an exterior shell or casing 8, providedwith a longitudinal flange 9, having rounded cor ners, and whichfiange is ada ted to fit snugly against the side of the all of the rail; and with vertical 'flanges 10, which are adapted to fit snugly against the fish plate 3, and which flanges are provided with inclmed ends 11, which are cut away to fit the parties.

fish plate. The shell 8, longitudinal flange 9, and the vertical flange 10 form a chamber or cavity 12. Secured to the shell 8 is a curvilinear stud 13.

14 designates circular openings, 'which pass througlrthe .shell 8 and through a portion of the vertical flanges 10; and formed in said openings are shoulders 15.

16 designates the bonding copper wire, the ends of which are secured to the adjacent ends of the rails 1 and 2 in any suitable manner. That is to say; these ends may be secured to the rails by bein soldered; or holes may be drilled in the ball of the rails, and the twin-terminals of the wire driven into the holes.

Two of the bolts whichare used for fastening the fish plate to-the rails are inserted through the openings 14, and the nuts are aplied thereto on the inside of the rail, as hereinefore stated; and, when tightened, the heads of said bolts-are countersunk beneath the face ofthe shell 8,.and are. seated on theshoulders 15, it being understood, of course,

'wire from being dislodged by accident, or

from being tampered with by unauthorized wire, it would, be necessary to take oil the nuts of the bolts which secure said guard to V the rails, which would necessitate the use of a wrench, and considerablemanual labor. Having fully described our mvent1on,what we claim is:-

In order to obtain access to said ,1. The herein'described guard for railway rail bonds, comprising a plate, a

1 flange integral with threesides of. said plate to'form a chamber on one side thereof, there being a air of horizontally ahned apertures formed t rough said plate adjacent 113$ ends,

and a centrallyudisposed stud formed integral with the plate'within the'chamber. 2. The herem describedguard for electric railway Irailbonds, comprising a plate, a

flange integral with the top and ends of said plate to form a chamber. on the inside of said plate, and there being a pair of hcrizonta ly aljned apertures formed through said plate adjacent its ends.

3. The herein described guard for electric railway rail bonds, comprising aplate, a flange integral with the top and ends of said plate to a form a chamber on the inside of said plate, there being a pair of horizontally alined apertures formed through said plate 10 and adjacent its ends, and shoulders integral with the flanges on the ends of said plate, which shoulders project into the openings In testimony whereof, We have slgned our names to this specification, in presence of' two subscribing witnesses.

JACOB J. .SAPPER. JOSEPH G. BRUEGGEMANN. itnesses EDWARD E. LONGAN; E. L. WALLACE. 

